The present invention generally relates to flash storage devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to systems and methods of maintaining data integrity when a power disruption occurs in a flash storage device.
A portable electronic device may include a flash storage device for storing data. Although the flash storage device stores data after the portable device is powered-down, the flash storage device is generally sensitive to power disruptions occurring during normal operation as a result of battery discharge or drop-off. In particular, data written into the flash storage device during a power disruption is susceptible to corruption. Thus, various techniques have been proposed to reduce data corruption caused by a power disruption in a flash storage device.
In one technique for reducing data corruption in a flash storage device, a power supply in the portable electronic device alerts the flash storage device of a power disruption and maintains power in the flash storage device for a sufficient time to complete a data write operation in the flash storage device. In this way, integrity of the data in the write operation is maintained and corruption of the data in the flash storage device is avoided. Other than completing the write operation, the portable device does not perform other read or write operations until power is restored to the flash memory device. Some portable electronic devices, however, are not equipped to maintain power in a flash storage device during a power disruption or to alert the flash storage device of the power disruption. Consequently, data in the flash storage device may become corrupted during a power disruption in the flash storage device.
In light of the above, a need exists for a flash storage device that maintains integrity of data during a write operation when a power disruption occurs in the flash storage device.